The Public Sound Objects (PSOs) is a Shared Sonic Environment for experimental music available as an installation or as a web based system. It is targeted to the general Public and it does not require previous music knowledge. A user can join a collaborative performance using a “Bouncing Ball Java Interface” by manipulating Sound Objects in a central soundserver.

To run the client software properly you need to have Java installed and a Standard MIDI Synthesizer. The Public Sound Objects Software is Open Source under a GPL Licence. Source code can be downloaded. A video essay can be found here.

The project was created by Álvaro Barbosa during his visiting research period at the Music Technology Group (MTG) in Barcelona. The Music Technology Group (MTG) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona, part of its Department of Information and Communication Technologies and of its Audiovisual Institute, is specialized in sound and music computing. With more than 40 researchers coming from different and complementary disciplines, the MTG carries out research on topics such as sound processing and synthesis; music content description; interactive music systems; computational models of perceptual and music cognition; and the technologies related with music social networks.